Gold & CoTales from the Prime Cup
by sjshark23
Summary: This is the sequel to my Pokemon take on "The Outsiders". This will focus more on the characters themselves rather than try to fit the storyline of the novel. STORY DISCONTINUED
1. Welcome to the Prime Cup

**Here's chapter 1.**

**Note of clarification: this fic will focus more on the interactions between characters, including POV changes and whatnot. The first fic may have been a bit boring because I was trying to stick to the storyline of "The Outsiders", so hopefully you'll find this more exciting.**

"We're actually here..." Gold whispered to himself as he and the rest of his friends walked through the doors of the Pokemon League. The big glass double doors slid open, and the foyer seemed to stretch toward infinity on all sides. For Gold and his closest friends, this was a welcome distraction from the horrifying events of the past week.

Just two days ago, Emerald and Silver, two friends of the group, had died. Emerald's death had come from injuries sustained during a fire in Cherrygrove City, and after he died Silver ran out and provoked the Goldenrod City police into gunning him down. The memory of Silver collapsing in the National Park after five gunshots hit him was still fresh in everyone's mind. Emerald had only been fourteen, and Silver seventeen.

Gold was eighteen, six feet tall and stocky in build, and almost never seen with long pants on. His hair was jet-black, long in the back, and a short strand coming out from underneath his black baseball cap which was always turned backward. He had a red sweatshirt on with the sleeves cut off at the elbow, and the shirt he wore underneath was a dark green. As always, he wore golden yellow shorts and black sneakers, and his gray eyes often reflected his joker personality. He had been one of the three boys from New Bark Town who had rescued a group of children from the burning Pokemon Center in Cherrygrove, and that incident had made him a lot more sensitive to what others were doing and thinking.

Three other boys were with him. All three were lean, tough, and ready for battle. They had shared Gold's experience in that they had felt as he did when Emerald died, and had seen Silver gunned down, and were determined to keep their memories alive forever.

Ruby was seventeen going-on eighteen, with dark hair often covered by a white hat he'd designed himself. He was a bit shorter than Gold, but with the same build. He wore a black jacket that he'd repaired several times, and his black pants were in the same shape. He was often trying to get the other gang members to voice their feelings, but usually it was to no avail. It was, however, well-publicized that he was in a tight relationship with Sapphire, but he tried to avoid it.

Green was the second-oldest of the gang, but was also the unofficial leader. He was around six feet three inches tall with spiky brown hair and a seemingly permanent scowl. He had a tendency to wear too-small black t-shirts (Ruby once cracked that it was to show off his muscles) and his dark jeans were covered in grass stains. On his left wrist was a black band with Silver and Emerald's names stitched into them, so as to remind the group of their losses and to remember them. He was second to Red, his old friend and rival, in battling, but best at keeping his head, so he was the leader.

Red was the oldest of the group, and also the joker. He was just under six feet tall, with short black hair and sparkling green eyes. His face bore a long gash from a fight, and he was always wisecracking about something any of the gang, usually Green, did. He, too, wore a baseball cap, but he wore it forward, unlike Gold, and it was red with a lightning bolt on the front. In his mind, life was just one big joke, so it was only natural to tell it to everyone to bring color into other people's lives. At least that was how he explained it.

The group headed for the registration counter, and saw a brown-haired trainer walk away. He looked familiar to Gold, but he couldn't place him. Meanwhile, Green was talking to the receptionist, and his yell of "GOLD!" jerked Gold out of his mind freeze.

"Gold, honestly, you need to pay better attention," Green told him with his usual scowl. "I told you to put your Poke Balls into the reader to be registered five times already!"

"Sorry," Gold muttered as he placed all six balls into their slots. A faint bluish glow emerged from the machine used to register Pokemon, and the receptionist entered the data into the competition archive. "I was distracted. That trainer that just left seemed familiar."

"Yeah, I noticed him too," Red chimed in, with a similar expression to Green. "He looked like that kid you beat up during our fight two days ago. Paul what's-his-name..."

"Even so, that's no excuse to be keeping the girls waiting," Green snapped, pointing to Blue and Sapphire (Yellow and Crystal were checking the rankings board), and Blue promptly stuck her tongue out at him in response. "They've got to register too, you know."

"I know that," hissed Gold as he fitted his last Poke Ball into his belt. He was sure that the mystery trainer was Paul, but it didn't seem to be right. Then again, he seldom was about these things.

A guide took the eight fighters to the Trainers' Village, and showed them their small apartment. It was simple in layout, and soon arguments began to break out about who slept where and who didn't. Eventually Green had to knock Ruby and Red's heads together because they were fighting about who should have to sleep on the couch, and that shut both of them up. The girls had gone out to see what the rest of the competition looked like, so the boys were alone in the small front room.

"So." Ruby said with a mischievous grin. "How's about we go meet the girls in the Poke Center? It'll be much better than sittin' around here doin' nothing."

"Shut your trap," Red grunted from the table. He and Green were in the middle of their usual pastime, arm-wrestling, and Red was straining to keep Green from slamming his hand down. If there was one thing Red loved more than battling (and Yellow, though he wouldn't admit it), it was beating his rival at arm-wrestling. "You're just looking for an opportunity to start something up between us."

"Both of you keep it quiet." snarled Green as he slammed Red's hand down with unnecessary force, causing Red to yell in pain. "Oh, whoops," he said, looking at Red with wide, concerned eyes. "I forgot that you were using your stitched-up hand."

"Don't worry about it," Red reassured him, looking at his hand with a grin. "It'd take more than that to bust it open again. That Rocket I knocked out a few nights ago sure had a hard head." He extended his arm for another round, and Green sighed and grabbed it, signaling the start of another round.

"A few nights ago..." Gold whispered to himself, and he thought back to the time that Red had indicated....

**So that's that for the first chapter. Hopefully more people will read this than the last one, and I hope it's good enough...anyways, Read/Review to help me improve the story.**


	2. Green's Troubles Revealed

**Here's chapter 2. Introducing the first POV switches and flashbacks was difficult, but I think I pulled it off.**

**To clarify: **_italics_ is an insight into the character's memory, normal print is the character's POV

**[Narrative continued by Gold]**

_It was just a few nights ago, yet it seems like it's happening right now. We had just finished punishing the Rockets for crossing into our neighborhood and for generally treating us like dirt. Silver had brought his dad's old car to the fight, and he drove it to the hospital as cool as could be. Too cool. As we walked into the room, a doctor had stopped us and told us that Emerald was dying and that we couldn't see him. But Silver pulled out the boxcutter that Red had loaned him and threatened to kill every member of the hospital staff if he didn't let us in. When he did, Emerald whispered his dying words, words that made me realize that that was the end, then slumped backward. But Silver didn't realize it was over until Emerald didn't respond for about a minute, and he raced out like a Banette was after him._

_Next thing I remember, I was walking into Green's house to a completely different scene from earlier that evening. Half the gang were getting cuts and slashes fixed by the three girls who hadn't fought with us. Sapphire had that awful gash in her face, and she'd broken a few ribs. Ruby and Red had seemed unhurt, but Red had busted his hand open and Ruby had a slash across his arm. I remember Green jumping up in annoyance that I'd been gone so long, but I must've looked awful, because he backed off. When the phone rang, he answered it and looked agitated. One second he's ordering me to get my Pidgeot, Majestic, out, the next he's explaining in a pained tone that Silver had finally broken and robbed a Pokemon Mart. The dreams I've had in the run-up to the Prime Cup always end in gunshots and Silver whispering my name before he collapsed and died from the bullets. To this day, I've still never seen Red and Green angrier than they were that night. That doesn't help me when I try to block out the flashbacks, but I don't know if I want them to end._

[**BACK TO THE MAIN STORY]**

"Gold? Gold!" Green was shaking Gold, hard, and almost bashed Gold's head against the wall behind him. Gold jerked out of his reverie, and looked at Green.

"Would ya quit shaking me, Green? I was just thinking back to two nights ago." There was no point in lying to Green, because he'd find it out eventually. "Back to Silver and Emerald dying..."

"Well, stop thinking about it, 'cause you're making the rest of us nervous. You've been so tense lately, I keep wondering if you'll ever be back to normal. Emerald and Silver were our friends too, but you don't see us spacing out and thinking back to their deaths." Green's cold tone caused Ruby to stare at him.

"What a terrible thing to say! Green, you know as well as I do that we've been preoccupied with that for the past few days. Gold was there with both of them, and he saw what happened to Silver after Emerald died." He turned to Gold. "Don't think too much on it, buddy, because we need you at your sharpest if we're gonna win this Cup. Emerald wouldn't want you to, and neither would Silver...I think." His uncertainty bugged Gold, because he didn't know what to say in response.

"Come on, smart-mouth, let's go to the competitor's lounge. I think the girls are there, so we can get some feedback on who we're fighting." Gold said quietly with a hint of his usual cocky grin, and he and Ruby headed for the door. When the door slammed, Green looked at Red, who was sharpening his knife.

"Are you going to start in on me now?" he snapped, slamming his fist against the wall in frustration.

"No, man, of course not. What's with you, anyways? One minute you're all concerned about Gold, the next you come over all cold and unfeeling, as if you've got two Greens living inside your head.. What's eating you, buddy?"

"It's just that...I can't stop thinking about Silver either. Remember when he got thrown in jail for what some Rocket did? He didn't deserve that, nor did he deserve to die like he did. It's not fair!" Green was really agitated now. "It's not fair that we get to endure all the hardship around here, what with us having to work nights at the damn building site in Vermilion to get by, and Gold spacing out every ten minutes because the rigors of life in general have gotten to him!" His voice was rising, and Red backed off in shock and worry. "And Ruby! He's got to report to Sinnoh every summer to work in those damned Oreburgh mines because his father threw him out! And don't even get me started on what the girls have had to go through! Bad enough we've got our problems, but they have it even worse because they're our friends and have to deal with them alongside the four of us guys! It just isn't fair to any of us!" he concluded, pushing over a portable storage bin and spilling its contents onto the floor. Three Poke Balls, a picture frame, and a small red box fell out, and Green shouted in surprise as he heard glass break.

"What's that in there, Green?" Red asked in a hushed tone as he picked up the picture frame. The glass was shattered, but inside, in bold color, was a photo of the gang, taken sometime during the week before their lives were turned upside down. There was Emerald in the center, his small frame dwarfed by his friends' greater height. Next to him was Silver, smiling grimly as he pointed to the camera. Green was there, his cold scowl replaced by a bright smile as he used one hand to salute the photographer and put the other on Blue's shoulder. Then Gold, his black hair a mess, grinning with his arm around a smiling Crystal. Ruby, with Sapphire next to him, his dancing blue eyes sparkling. Finally there was Red, with Yellow holding onto him, a comical grin on his face and his baseball cap askew. The picture caused Red to smile weakly, and he looked at Green for a response.

"Seems months ago now," he said quietly as he looked at the photograph. "But that's over now. We've got a Prime Cup to win, and it starts now...."

"Sure buddy. Let's catch up with Ruby and Gold, they should have met up with the girls by now."

"Cool enough." was Green's only reply, and they moved to the door to make it happen.

**[Narrative continued by Red]**

It was strange to see Green explode like that. For the sixteen years we'd known each other, ever since we both moved to New Bark, he'd always managed to keep his emotions hidden from everybody. I remember when he'd been bested in a fistfight in eighth grade, and he'd just walked away with that cold scowl on his face. Whenever anything disappointed or annoyed him, he had one expression, that scowl. He wore that scowl at his parents' funeral after they died in an auto crash, and when he shredded his knee at the age of thirteen trying to get Blue out of his grandmother's trees so she wouldn't get in trouble. For Green, life seemed to be one big disappointment. Despite his great talent, he often put others before himself, supposedly to prevent himself from getting his hopes up and having them dashed as they often were. It's sad, I think, that he opted not to go to Saffron University after he finished at Violet High School. He's quite a clever guy, even if he does come across as unfeeling.

We walked through the door, and Green slammed it with unnecessary force. I saw him look around quickly, then head down the hallway at a dead run. _What's his deal?_ I thought as I followed him down the hall toward the competitors' lounge, and resolved to figure it out.

**So that's it for Chapter 2. As always, read/review to help me write a better story.**


	3. Meeting Paul

**Chapter 3**

Green strode into the competitors' lounge in a violent temper, with a rather put-out Red right behind him. The lounge was a large rectangular room, with high windows and a design on the ceiling shaped like the legendary Pokemon Dialga. The six other members of the group were sitting in a corner, discussing their first-round match. Gold had his knife out and was turning it over in his hands, while Ruby sat staring out the window at the snow outside. The weather at Indigo Plateau was always changing, and today the leaders of the Pokemon League had decided to make it winter. Yellow and Blue were staring at sheets of paper regarding their opponents, and Crystal was discussing tactics with Sapphire.

Green let out a noise of frustration as he threw himself into a chair next to Gold, causing the other boy to drop his blade in surprise. Gold dove beneath the table to retrieve it, and Green scowled. Red dropped down beside the two, and let out his breath in a long, low hiss. Green looked down, thinking about his outburst earlier. It wasn't fair, he knew, but he would have to live with it.

"So who're we fighting in the first round, Crystal?" asked Gold, who had found his knife and sat back down in his armchair. "It'll be interesting to find out what types their number three fighter is using."

"Well, you're in luck, kid," growled a voice behind Crystal, who squeaked in surprise and looked back. Standing there was a dark-haired boy of about seventeen, with a scowl not unlike Green's and a purple jacket slung over his shoulder. Could it be that... "I'm the number one fighter on that team. Name's Paul." So he was the mystery trainer from earlier. Green jumped up, and Paul laughed coldly. "Green, do you honestly think I'm going to fight you here? Come on, we're all friends in the competitors' lounge, right?"

"Easy for you to say," snarled Green. "You've got the entire Rocket organization protecting you. Where are they, hiding behind a door waiting to kill us?" Green's voice was rising, and Paul stepped back in surprise. Red and Gold leaped up and held Green back, despite his fighting to get free.

"You don't get it, do you? I'm trying to give you guys a bit of feedback on my team, so that we're on more even ground when the first round starts. But if you don't want my help..."

"Oh, no, we'll take it," Blue said with a frown on her face. "But you'll have to make it quick. I don't think our _friend_," she glare at her friends, who were trying to stop Green from doing what he felt like doing. "is going to be held back for much longer. So tell us what you were going to, and then get out of here." She signaled for Paul to start, and he did, with a look of surprise at Green's face.

"Well, anyway, our number three is called Roark, from Oreburgh City. His father used to run the gym there. He's a Rock trainer, and he's tough to take out. I'd watch out for his Rampardos if I were you, and also keep an eye out for his Onix. So now that I've given you his type preferences, what about yours?" he said, looking at Gold, who snarled "No preference," and Paul turned around and walked away.

**[Narrative continued by Green]**

As Paul walked away, I was remembering the fight a few nights ago. That night, Paul had said the three words that he'd been afraid to say when he was a part of our team, and it riled me so much that I had to knock him out quickly. Normally, the words "I'll take you" don't often get me mad, because it's often a joke from one of the gang, but to hear my oldest friend say it really ticked me off. I'd noticed that his jaw still had a large bruise from when I'd knocked him down for the final time. He was still as arrogant in defeat as always, and he'd run like all the rest of his gang, as he always had when confronted with someone stronger than him, as he had now.

**[BACK TO THE MAIN STORY]**

Gold seized the page on Roark and groaned. "This has so little on his Pokemon's moveset," he complained loudly to no-one in particular. "How am I supposed to counter his attacks if I don't know which moves his Pokemon know."

"I'm guessing his Rampardos will have one of the three Headbutt variants," Crystal said, keying in the search term RAMPARDOS on the small computer next to her and looking at its possible moves. "It's Headbutt and Zen Headbutt are really nasty, but keep Typhlosion out of there against it if it knows what I think it does."

"What, Crystal?" Yellow asked with concern. "What's so dangerous about a Rampardos?" She knew little about Pokemon revived from fossils, and Crystal looked at her and Gold before delivering her answer.

"Well, since Rampardos is the Head Butt Pokemon, and it's a Rock-type, it might know the move Head Smash, which is the most powerful and dangerous headbutt move in its possible moveset. Gold's only relief from that would be its fifty percent recoil damage, which could take out Rampardos as well as its opponent if Roark's not careful."

"So it's like my Pikachu's Volt Tackle?" asked Red.

"Exactly like Volt Tackle." Crystal looked at Gold again. "And don't think Roark doesn't know about Head Smash's repercussions, Gold, because he will, and the last thing you can be right now is overconfident."

"Don't you worry about me, Crystal," Gold said with a grin. I know exactly who to use against an ornery dinosaur." He pulled out a Poke Ball marked with a stone and showed it to everyone. "I'll just hit it with another Rock-type: my Golem, Rocky. Its Earthquake attack should send Rampardos back to its own era."

"It better, 'cause the first round starts tomorrow, and we want you to pick up the point from your victory that'll propel us to the second round." Green looked at everyone. "Let's get back to the apartment and get some sleep. We've got a rough day ahead of us, especially Red, so let's get it while we can." With a few murmurs of assent, the others got up and followed him out of the room.

**So that ends Chapter 3. A note: the single review is getting to me, so please REVIEW in order to get the best possible story out of me. Any SHIPS, characters from the anime or manga, and general plotline improvements would be greatly appreciated. -sjshark23-**


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